One of the best things about
Japanese genre cinema is that no matter how excessive and even sleazy they can
be, many explicitly deal with social issues like class and politics as much as
such subjects would be in films by the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi. Inherently with the period films set in Japan's
past, the films end up even tripping over themes such as these, the historical
periods and social mores especially of the Edo period of Japan giving enough
material still for ripe storylines. Illusion
of Blood is no exception to this - where samurai are masterless and
destitute, even considering trading in their swords for money, one such figure Iyemon
Tamiya (Tatsuya Nakadai) is willing
to remarry into a rich family with prospects of a new master even if it means
publically disgracing his wife Oiwa (Mariko
Okada) by either a fake adultery accusation or even disfigurement, maybe
even worse to get his way. Like Les Diaboliques
(1955), it's a drama of backstabbing and betrayal, its worldview awash with
as much a cynical tone as the more famous film. Like that film, the
perpetrators of certain crimes may even be haunted by the dead.

It's very much a bleak worldview
on display, samurai without honour, a friend of Iyemon's in his own scheme to
claim Oiwa's sister for himself even if it means bloodshed and lying. There are
a lot of Japanese films about the dead coming back to haunt the living
transgressors especially in period settings - even in films not necessarily
horror themed like The Sword of Doom (1966)
- and it's understandable why, especially in a country still with deeply held spiritual
beliefs, as it can reflect both a literal supernatural tale and a metaphorical
moral drama at the same time. There's never a need to try to downplay the
supernatural content in these films or even try to rationalise them as a lot of
modern Western films do, and it's a breath of fresh air as a result to view
this film where it's part of a brazenly bleak narrative with a deeply
detestable main protagonist to follow. Stories themes which would still be
pertinent to the modern day but without the context of a time period that is
entirely different from the modern day and allows for different perspectives. An
emphasis more on deliberate drama is helped when the acting is top notch. In
this case you have Tatsuya Nakadai as
the lead of Illusion of Blood, an actor who carried Masaki Kobayashi'sThe Human
Condition trilogy (1959-1961) on his shoulders, alongside roles in the
likes of Akira Kurosawa films, and is
just as good here, as an utterly loathful figure here who is yet compelling
here due to Nakadai's performance1.

From http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hXLQfVzt2Hk/T8cMiBWW1jI/
AAAAAAAAJlw/ahLGh09-9cQ/s1600/illusionob13.JPG

Even when these films are
conventional ghost stories as this one becomes, Japanese tales like Illusion of Blood are significantly
more interesting than from other countries due to how seriously the tropes are
depicted and played with. At nearly two hours long, it doesn't feel like its
dragging its feet but building up a period drama which ebbs and flows with
interest side characters, moments of broad humour that work and a slow burn
intensity. The quality of the set design for many of these films, even when one
if forced to watch an old grotty DVD copy like I had to, also shows an era of
Japan so drastically different, aesthetically and literally, to Western
medievalism. While there's themes that are universal here to other countries
across any time period, I openly admit a lot of my love of Japanese cinema's
period stories is that it's also a depiction of an entirely alien world to mine
of hierarchies and behaviour that's different, even the dress of characters
drastically separate from many modern Japanese genre films. That even the genre
films from Japan could have the best technical crews and production designers
on them, rather than a couple of coins to rub together only, really makes these
obscurer horror films shine even more.

The horror itself is lingering. Even
for the one or two fake rats that appear, they come off as amusing and not
detract from the ghoulish macabre tone. This does show, even if more sedate
than films like Jigoku (1960) that
went even further, the more morbid side of Japanese horror that yet depicts the
gruesome - a couple of corpses pinned on opposite sides of a door - with an air
of sinister beauty that's rarely found in Western cinema barring the European
output. When it's also willing to be openly lurid - from the facial
disfigurement subplot to a corpse's face melting off with effects still surprisingly
efficient - it doesn't detract from the Japanese Gothic tone that won me over
on this viewing. It even has an air of melancholy, the ending of Illusion of
Blood with Iyemon being plagued by ghosts that may or not be real in a white
snowbound landscape, a type of poetic and lyrical moment you don't normally
picture with horror films nowadays but capped the end of this hidden gem off
perfectly.

From http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j153/
comptonabbas/illusionofblood.jpg

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1 In fact, looking
into the films Tatsuya Nakadai has
starred in for this review, he's now become one of my favourite actors now upon reflection of all the incredible films he's been in I've seen.Ran
(1985) and countless Kurosawa
films he's appeared in, Kwaidan (1964), The Human Condition trilogy, Belladonna of Sadness (1973) (voicing
the Devil), The Sword of Doom (1966),
When a Woman Ascends the Strairs (1960),
enough films there to make him stand out both for the quality of his career path but that he's always incredible in all of them regardless of language barriers. And the best thing is he is so prolific, still alive as of 2017 and working, there's major films in Japanese cinema he's starred in I've still to see.

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"I could go on for hours with more examples. The list is endless. You probably never gave it a thought, but all great films, without exception, contain an important element of no reason. And you know why? Because life itself is filled with no reason." - Rubber (2010)

About Me

I am 28 years old and hail from England. For the last few years I have been a growing fan of cinema and have decided to take the next step into blogging about it and any other tangents that about the things I'm interested in I get onto.